Monday~ October 30

This year is moving right along, isn't it? Getting close to Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, but also getting close to Christmas, my least favorite holiday.

This weekend the conditions were perfect for making progress on many projects. I had plenty of time. I had the perfect blustery, rainy, no guilt weather. I had all the fabric and miscellany required to finish some projects. I had a list of priorities.  I had a good book. What! How can a good book entertain you while you sew? It can't unless you do books on tape (I don't. I've tried). I did not have a good movie or series to watch on the computer while I sewed. Is that necessary? No. Sometimes I just want the peace and quiet but then, the book kept calling me. So I read too much.

My list included aprons, Block Lotto Sneak Peek Blocks, flying geese and "place pinks." The following is what I did on each.

Aprons. Not a single stitch was taken on the aprons. The big bloggers give you sneak peeks of projects for a couple of reasons. 1)They are making a gift and they don't want to ruin the surprise 2)They are getting ready for a show or book release and they need to save the reveal or 3)they want to tease you. I want to tease you so I'm only showing you a portion of the aprons.

As for flying geese. I wanted to get 48 little geese done for for this row of the Lori Holt Flickr Row Along that I've mentioned in previous posts. This is how many I did.

Sorry, isn't it? But aren't they cute?

The Block Lotto Sneak Peek blocks are finished. I did five and even managed to find time to embellish one with embroidery. I actually only like three of the five enough to put into the drawing for blocks. You won't see a picture here. Yet! See, we participants in the Sneak Peek portion of Block Lotto have promised to not show the project early.

And "place pinks" What the heck does that mean? The last few weeks you have seen over and over again my pink Star Crossed blocks. They are all finished and I've taken them off the design wall and now I need to get them back up and in their final position and begin sewing them together. Unfortunately, I can't cross this item off my list either.

Oh well! I'm retired! I'm sure I will find time to work on these projects later this week! I now have some DVD's to watch.

Enjoy!
Toni

 

October 22~A Blustery Day

Don't you love when I give you a weather report?

What am I up to? I've got lots going on.

Here are my apple blocks for the Bee in Your Bonnet Row A Long http://www.flickr.com/groups/2113425@N22/?added=1

Here are some flannel nine patches.

The lightest flannel and the green and burgandy are "leftovers" from my sis Joanne. I do tease her about this fabric as she already made one quilt with them. Gave me the leftovers. I added some fabric and made another quilt with the same fabric. And as I was organizing my sewing room the other day I started measuring the scraps and found that with the addition of a little more fabric I can make a third quilt! She still doesn't know how she overbought so much flannel. I don't over think it, I'm just grateful. Righ now I have 60 blocks done, with many more to go. The blocks will finish at 6 inches.

I also have finished all the blocks for my Star Cross Quilt top. Just need to clean off the design wall and those blocks up and arranged. Then sewn together.

And for whatever reason I decided that instead of giving my irregular tinier scraps, less than 2 1/2 inches, away. That I would do some scrap blocks. Here are the first four.

Don't we all need some mindless sewing? I'm learning from these. I'm learning that I need to add some more angles to make the blocks more interesting.

And THEN, as if I need more sewing, I am making two aprons. From these fabrics.

Busy? Sure! But I love it!

Enjoy!
Toni

October 15~Quilting in the Rain!

Don't get me wrong! I love the sunshine! People are in better moods in the sunshine and fall days are just the best. But there is also something to be said for the sound of rain and it's amazing how dried grass can become green in just two days of rain. 

I'm not here to wax poetic today. I'm just going to show you where I am on my two projects.

Star Crossed:

And the fourth fow of Lori Holts Row A Long. Apples and apple cores! Obviously not sewn in to a row yet. There will be sashings in between each block. Aren't they cute?

Looking at the other rows, I'm thinking I may need to do a "golden delicious" apple. Otherwise this row is going to have too much red compared to the first three rows.

 

Have a great week!
Enjoy!
Toni

Pink and Gray

Another glorious, unusually sunny day, in Oregon. In October! We are so lucky!

My sweet sister Joanne teased me about being long winded in last weeks post. To even things up I’m going to TRY to keep this post shorter. So I can get back to sewing.

I have always loved pinks and gray as a color combination. While everyone else is lovin’ yellows and grays, I think pink and gray does not get enough recognition. Fortunately for me, that should mean that my current project should get lots of attention. Hopefully in a good, supportive, way.

 

 

What do you think? Some blocks may end up on the back rather than the front, as they may be a little jarring to the eye but for now this is what it is. Each block has a reverse block of the same fabrics,

I am loving this block and colors. These blocks are made from fabric from my scrap totes. Well, except for the Kona Ash, it was in my stash, unused so not technically a “scrap”.

In last weeks post I mentioned that I had made a list of projects for this quarter. This pink and gray project was scheduled to be worked on with a goal of doing three blocks a week, along with my block a day project. But, I’m loving these colors and loving these blocks, and while I’m not, yet, behind on my block a day, I’m definitely doing more than three blocks a week of this one. These 18 blocks are all from the past seven days! What can I do? I’m addicted!

Enjoy!

Fabulous, Sunny October 1

What a wonderful September we have had! I could have gotten a little more quilting done but the weather has been so fabulous that I’ve wanted to be out there rather than in my cozy little sewing room.

Let me report on the Finish A Long. I had said I would finish four quilts but I actually finished three. With a little extra effort or more of an “it’s good enough atttitude” I could have finished the fourth. The fourth was the Granny Square Quilt Top. I struggled with the quilting pattern…the same reason I was short a quilt top finish the last quarter. (Still unfinished) I quilted, unsewed, quilted, unsewed, and finally did end up quilting one third of the quilt, with quilting that I liked.

When I was young I was notorious for starting projects and not finishing them. I usually lost interest as soon as I ran across a problem and I didn’t want to undo or deal with it in any proper manner.  In the “Age of Aquarius”, when everyone asked “What’s your sign?” I was able to blame it on the stars. I’m an Aries. It’s well documented that Aries can’t be blamed for not finishing projects. It’s an Aries trait. While I’m still an Aries, and I still have a pile of UFO’s, I like to think that I’m adult Aries. I have gained patience. I will unsew, resew, take out an offending block or whatever is necessary to finish a project to my liking. My UFO’s are caused by my mind taking an interest in another project, not because I’m struggling with the first one. Yes, still an Aries peculiarity, but to me, a more acceptable one. If I need to unsew, I just put a movie and get busy doing what needs to be done.

Having said all that, I want to commit to only two finished UFO’s this quarter. One will be the Granny Square

 

And the other will be this Friends and Flowers. I have chosen this one as it is smaller AND it is one of my older UFO’s. In fact, it is the first quilt top I ever posted on Flickr several years ago.

 

But don’t think I’m not going to be busy ! I made a list yesterday of the other things I want to get done for the fourth quarter. They are:

A Quilt Block a Day https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/A-Quilt-Block-A-Day/211113868950661?fref=ts

The qroup is doing cross or plus type blocks this season. I wasn’t going to participate as I had done several of those this year. Until I saw this: http://www.dontcallmebetsy.com/2012/03/wip-wednesday-one-with-lots-of-fans.html. I only want to do about twenty blocks so for this quarterly group I’m going to plan on doing two per week.

But I do like doing a block a day, it soothes my soul, so I’ve also started this: https://www.threadbias.com/blog_posts/crossroads-block-tutorial I will endeavor to do a block a day of these.

And then, don’t forget “Block Lotto”. I already know the fabrics required for each of these next three months and even tho’ we don’t know the block pattern yet, I know that I will be making blocks each month for this group. Hopefully nine blocks for each of the three drawings.

AND, remember, I'm still doing the Row A Long.

Plus I have a quilt to repair for my son/grandson and another quilt to make as a donation to Oregon Dachshund rescue.

Whew! I’ll keep myself busy! Cheerfully busy!

I hope you each have your fall projects planned for this next quarter. Or even this next month! 

Enjoy!

Toni